In defense of truck songs: How Riley Green is carrying on the tradition of Alan Jackson and Joe Diffie

In defense of truck songs: How Riley Green is carrying on the tradition of Alan Jackson and Joe Diffie

Big Machine“There Was This Girl,” the debut single from Riley Green, is currently at number five, with a real shot at becoming the newcomer’s first number one.

It’s from his EP, In a Truck Right Now, a project he’d already started before he signed with Big Machine Records.

“Some of ’em were songs that I’d written even before signing my record deal,” Riley says of the tracks on his major label debut. “It was stuff that I was planning on putting out.”

“And ‘In a Truck Right Now,'” he continues, mentioning the title song, “You know, there’s a lot of truck songs out there. You kinda want to steer away from doing something like that, thinking it’s gonna turn out like something else.”

Riley continues: “But I sort of look at it like, if it’s a song about how you grew up and things you can relate to, it doesn’t matter what it’s about, it’s a new song, you know. And we put our own spin on it.”

Riley likes to think the EP’s title track continues the great tradition of truck songs carried on by Joe Diffie, Alan Jackson, and Lee Brice.

“You know, if people stopped writing truck songs after ‘Pickup Man,'” he reflects, “we wouldn’t have ‘Daddy Let Me Drive,’ or ‘I Drive Your Truck.’ So, I mean, it was my kind of how I grew up in Northeast Alabama, and my dad teaching me how to drive a truck, you know.”

This summer, Riley hits the road with Brad Paisley, as fans await his full-length debut album.